“…for they drank from the Spiritual rock that accompanied
them, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4)
In your everyday life, whom or what do you seek first and most to fulfill your needs? I am referring to needs that transcend the physical and go deep into one’s heart and soul. The four basic, instinctive human needs are:
Acceptance: Knowing you are loved and needed by others.
Identity: Knowing you are individually significant and special.
Security: Knowing you are well-protected and provided for.
Purpose: Knowing you have a reason for living. For Christians, this means knowing that God has a special plan for your life.
Whether you have consciously realized it or not, these needs have been motivating you throughout your life. We are driven emotionally to find an avenue in life to satisfy these. The most common resources people seek for the fulfillment of their deepest needs are spouses, friends, children, career, churches or pastors, parents, money or material possessions and, finally, God.
You may have realized that the correct answer to my original question is something like, “I seek God first, more than anyone or anything else, to meet my deepest needs.” The fact is that most people cannot give that answer and that is the root of their problems. They never come to Jesus to get their deepest needs met. Jesus has the ability to give us spiritual drink and food to satisfy our inner longings. He invites us to come to Him for true fulfillment and promises us complete satisfaction if we do.
Unfortunately most people seek inner satisfaction through what they see as a quicker and surer method. They get married and expect their spouse to do for them what only Jesus can do. Parents hope their children will fill that hole, while children may look to their parents for everything. Others seek fulfillment moving from place to place or job to job, but these are only diversions.
No human being can meet your deepest needs. Only God can. Of course, if you are operating in God’s will, you can find someone who will encourage you or who will be God’s vessel to help you experience love in a real way. However, even the most spiritual person on earth is very mortal and, therefore, quite limited. When you put too much hope in a person, you are always headed for disappointment and sometimes even for disaster!
When a Christian does not allow God to meet his or her needs, three problems are created:
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- You are always disappointed with the results, no matter how well things go.
- You will lack the inner resources you need to love others the way you should and to confront life successfully.
- You will almost always be hurt and offended by the one in whom you invested all of your trust, because that one cannot possibly meet your deepest needs.
Sometimes the reaction to these problems is an underlying frustration that is manageable. More often, it is an outward anger that is destructive. God’s Word tells us what we can expect if we fall into the trap of trusting anyone or anything but Him to satisfy those needs He placed within us to point us to Him. He who trusts his own heart is a fool. (Proverbs 28:26) Cursed is the man trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength. (Jeremiah 17:5) He who trusts in his riches will fall. (Proverbs 11:28)
When I married my wife Karen, I didn’t realize I was expecting things of her that only God could do for me. She also expected me to give beyond my ability. God began to heal our marriage when we repented to God and to each other for the sin of rejecting Him as our greatest resource and for placing unrealistic expectations on one another. The result was a transformed marriage generated in the lives of two people plugged into the life-giving power of Jesus.
Karen and I know that your entire life will change when you trust Jesus to meet all your needs every day and that is the only way to have a great marriage. Once Jesus is working in your life, then everything else can work. As you pray and read the Word of God daily you will experience the reality of His presence in your life.
This Week
Have you been looking to someone or something other than Jesus to meet your deepest needs? Come to Him. He is ready to pour out His love and grace in your life.
Prayer
“Jesus, teach me to rely only on You to meet my deepest needs. You are the rock in my life. Cultivate my heart and help me trust You and Your word as the foundation of my life, marriage and relationships.”
Jimmy Evans is the author of Marriage on the Rock.
